Filipe Toledo Wins Corona Open J-Bay

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GoPro athlete Filipe Toledo returned to glory this week with a dramatic win at Jeffreys Bay off the Eastern Cape of South Africa. After sitting out the Outerknown Fiji Pro, Filipe showed up to the Cape and surfed like a man possessed.

Filipe met Jordy Smith in the quarterfinals, who had already scored a perfect 20 (two perfect 10 waves) in the third round, and was emerging as a favorite to win at his home break. Filipe, however, brought with him a completely new, aggressive approach to Jeffreys and this combined with smart wave selection made him almost impossible to defeat. He attacked every wave, controlled his speed within, and took to the air like no other surfer to compete at J-Bay. Boosting huge, clean aerials throughout his campaign set Filipe apart from the competition, and exemplified the progression of the sport as a whole.

In the final, Filipe met rookie and rail king Frederico Morais, and the two went to battle in the firing surf, but Filipe edged out the Portuguese upstart and put the punctuation on his fourth CT win.
"I can't believe it," said Filipe. "J-Bay is always a contest that's been my dream to win. To surf perfect waves like this that we did the entire contest. I've got to thank god for the amazing week that we've had. I've got my entire family here and supporting me. It's unbelievable and I'm speechless. I think I might leave my hair like this for the rest of the year."